Ideas are magical things. But have you ever thought about where good ideas come from?

Good ideas are not flashes of cosmic inspiration. They are the result of a process.

If you work the system, you'll get more (and better) ideas.

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck

Here's the process I use personally to develop my ideas. This process has helped me go from believing I wasn't creative to publishing hundreds of blog posts, podcast episodes, and screencast videos.

I call it The 5 C's of Creativity.

Step 1: Capture

Once an idea is gone, it’s often gone forever. So I make sure to capture everything that feels important without worrying about whether it’s good or bad. I can figure that out later.

I use two primary tools for capturing ideas: 1) my fancy notebook, 2) Drafts on my iPhone or Apple Watch (when I don't have my notebook with me).

Step 2: Curate

Once I capture my ideas, I need to go through them and decide what's worth keeping. Like a curator for a museum, I go through and decide what enters the museum (which is Obsidian for me).

When curating, what you get rid of is just as important as what makes the cut. You only want to keep the best of the best. Roughly 9 out of 10 things that I capture don't make the cut.

Step 3: Cultivate

You need a greenhouse where the seedlings of your ideas can grow. Amazing things can happen when you provide the right environment for your ideas to develop.

Many people assume they know what something is before it really has time to mature. But like a gardener planting a seed, you don't see the real value (the fruit) until the idea is grown.

Step 4: Connect

This is the newest step for me, and it's made possible by Obsidian. Bidirectional linking surfaces connections I wouldn't have seen otherwise and helps me see how things tie together.

I love how this step gives me a way to visualize the connections that naturally happen in my brain. Being able to externalize this helps me see how the puzzle pieces fit together.

Step 5: Create

Thinking/creating requires an output. It doesn't matter if it's public or private, but you need to decide for yourself what all these ideas mean to YOU.

Think of a water wheel - water goes in, creates motion, and then leaves. Your mind is like that too. When the ideas stop flowing (there's no output), so does the creative flywheel.

So there you have it! The 5 C's of Creativity:

• Capture

• Curate

• Cultivate

• Connect

• Create

Give this a shot the next time you feel "stuck" and get your creative flywheel spinning again.